LOGINMERRY CHRISTMAS šš¤
I've been staring at this screen trying to figure out how to say what I want to say without sounding like a Hallmark card lol... but here goes.
Thank you.
Like genuinely, from the bottom of my heart, thank you.
Do you know what it feels like to be a small author? It feels like shouting into the void and hoping someone hears you. It feels like putting pieces of your soul into a story and wondering if anyone will care. It feels like refreshing your stats at 3am just to see if one more person clicked.
And then you showed up.
You clicked. You read. You stayed. You voted. You commented. You added my book to your library like it mattered.
And to me? That's everything.
That's you saying "I see you and I pick you." Out of all the books on this app, you picked mine. Do you know how insane that is? How grateful I am?
So here's my Christmas wish... if this book has made you feel something, anything... would you leave me a review? š„ŗš
It doesn't have to be perfect. Just real. Just you and your thoughts and your words. Tell me what you loved, what you hated, what made you scream into your pillow lol. I want to hear it all.
Reviews are how other readers find me. But more than that... hearing from you reminds me why I do this.
Merry Christmas, loves. You're making my dreams come true and you don't even know it š¤
ā Remi š¤
KNOXāS POVSheās right, Phantom says, low and certain, fully awake now. Sheās been right since the first night. The house is wrong.āEmberāāāAnd the wolf.ā She turns to me, and now thereās something almost desperate threading through it. āIn the fight. With Hale. I know you decided it was a concussion. I know thatās the sensible answer, and Goddess, you love a sensible answer; youād file the apocalypse under āweatherā if you could.ā A humourless breath. āBut I know what I felt, Knox. I reached for Sapphireāon purpose, controlled, exactly the way you taught me. And she came. I felt the silver start in my hands. And then Hale did something, and it didnāt falter, it didnāt fumble, it stopped. Like a door slamming shut inside me. Sapphire was there, and then she was gone, and I could not reach her, and thatās when Hale put me on the floor.ā Her voice cracks at the edges. āAnd then the blood from her eyes. And the way she looked older after. Aged. Like the fight peeled years off her right
KNOXāS POVI go still. I already have the gist of itāshe called me earlier this night, and she gave me the facts straight: my housekeeper had been moving sedated women through the servant tunnels in a hood.One of them had a fresh knife wound. Marjorie had drawn a blade on Reyes and called my fiancĆ©e a witch.I stood in the cold outdoors with the phone pressed to my ear and felt the floor tilt under me.I told Ember to do what she felt was right, and I meant itāand then I did not come home for four more hours, because I could not make myself face what waited hereāSheās in the holding cells,ā Ember says. āI kept her solitary. Where youāwhere I put her.ā Her hand fists slightly in the sheet over my chest. āI keep thinking I should feel something clean about it. Vindicated, maybe. She pulled a knife, Knox. On Reyes. There was blood on those girls, actual blood, and she called me a witch and started screaming about the moon bleeding, and I did the right thing. I know I did the right thin
KNOXāS POVItās past three when I finally give up on the crown for the night and go to her.I shower first, in the dark, because Iāve been in a cold garage and three colder meetings and Iāve got the whole ugly day still on my skin, and I donāt want to bring any of it into that bed.Itās a rule Iāve made without ever saying it aloud: whatever the day is, whateverās rotting out there in the world with my name on it, I wash it off before I touch her.She gets the clean version. Sheās earned the clean version.Thatās the whole reason I do any of it, if Iām honest with myself.The councils, the reports, the endless machinery of holding a continent together while everyone else sleepsāI grind through all of it, every night, chasing the one moment I get to walk into that room and find her waiting.A man can carry almost anything if thereās a warm bed and a warmer woman at the end of it. I didnāt use to believe that. I do now.I come out, towelling my hair, and sheās awake.Of course sheās awa
EMBERāS POVI donāt even blink. I donāt look away from her face. I just hold my hand out to the side.āDaxon,ā I say, my voice dead calm. āPhone.āDaxon doesnāt hesitate for a fraction of a second. He slaps his heavy, encrypted comms device straight into my palm.Marjorieās breath catches. Her chest heaves, panic finally warring with the fanaticism.āWhat are you doing?āI dial the King.It rings twice.āDaxon.ā Knoxās voice is a low, dangerous rumble. He assumes itās an emergency when his personal guard calls him directly.āItās me,ā I say.There is a micro-shift in the line. The danger turns into something much sharper, entirely focused.āEmber. Are you alright?āāIām fine,ā I say, keeping my eyes locked on the housekeeper. āBut Iām standing in the east wing service passage with Marjorie. Reyes and Daxon are with me. She was wearing a dark hood, trying to move two sedated women through the servant tunnels. They are burning up with fever, and one of them has a fresh, bleeding knife w
EMBERāS POVāGet your hands off meāā Marjorie wrenches free of Daxon, breathing hard, and rounds on me, and her eyes are wet and blazing, and thereās something in them I canāt read. āYou have no idea what youāve just done. No idea. You think youāve saved them. You think youāre the hero of this, donāt you, riding in with your guardsāāāI think youāre doing something to vulnerable women that you refuse to explain,ā I say coldly, āand I think an innocent person doesnāt fight three people to keep it hidden. So hereās what happens now, Marjorie. The girls stay inside. And youāā I hold her furious gaze, and I make the decision because I have watched Knox get gutted by people he trusted one too many times, and I will not stand here and let it happen again. āIām giving you twenty-four hours.āāTwenty-four hours to what?āāTo leave.ā I donāt blink. āTo pack your things and resign your position and walk out of this house with whatever dignity you have left. Because by the time those twenty-four
EMBERāS POVAnd this time, I donāt freeze.Something in me has had enough ā enough of things I donāt understand in this house, enough of cold wrong feelings I canāt name, enough of watching people I liked turn out to be exactly the thing my gut warned me about.And I donāt just walk toward her. I turn my head toward the guard station at the top of the sub-level stairs, where I know Reyes is posted for the night, and I raise my voice.āReyes.ā It cracks down the corridor. āDown here. Now. Bring Daxon.āMarjorieās head snaps up.āWhat are you doingāāāMaking sure you canāt move them one more inch.ā Iām already striding toward her, and behind me I hear boots, the heavy quick tread of guards responding to a summons, and Marjorieās face in the shadow of the shawl goes from hunted to something harder, something cornered and furious. āYouāve had your chance to explain yourself to me, Marjorie. And you told me it wasnāt my business and disappeared into the dark. So weāre done with that. If yo
KNOXāS POVHe blinks, the picture of innocence. āIām not sure I understand. I explained the purpose quite clearly at the beginning of the evening. Conflict resolution. Closure. An opportunity for all parties toāāāBullshit.āThe word is deadpan, and I see Loganās head snap up, see Galeās sobbing st
EMBERāS POVWhen I step outside the girlsā cabin with Rayana and Queenie flanking me, Rayana is mid-monologue about the caribou sheās planning to devour at dinner ā something about sinking her teeth into tender, perfectly seared meat that borders on orgasmic ā and Iām half-listening, half-scanning
EMBERāS POVThe laughter dies. Everyoneās eyes slide to Knox, who shrugs without a trace of shame.āNot much of a secret if you all already know.āāYou could have at least tried to be mysterious about it,ā Rayana sighs. āWhereās the fun in confessing things everyone already knows?āāYou said write
EMBERāS POVāFinally,ā Rayana drawls. āI thought we were going to have to hose you two down.āāShut up,ā I say, but Iām grinning. āLetās go eat your caribou.āDinner is a production.Rafael has transformed the main lodge into something out of a fairy tale ā candles everywhere, a fire roaring in the







